Red Devils spread the wealth

Saturday

LINCOLNTON, Ga. --- Lincoln County gave a new meaning to the spread offense by spreading the work among just about every available player.

A.G. Middlebrooks led six different scorers with a pair of touchdowns as the Red Devils cruised to a 35-6 victory over Commerce in a steady rain at Buddy Buford Stadium on Friday night.

Lincoln County (4-1) got productive play from three different quarterbacks to recover from its loss to Abbeville (S.C.) last week and heads into the Region 7-A schedule with some momentum and a little more comfort in its new offensive system.

The Red Devils rushed for 272 yards and threw for 201 more despite the slick conditions.

"Commerce is a little down, but I'm still really pleased with the way we threw and ran the football," Lincoln County coach Larry Campbell said. "It's great to come away with no more injuries and got everybody on the field."

Despite the weather, Lincoln County struck quickly on offense and took advantage of consistently good field position to build a commanding 25-6 halftime lead. On the second play from scrimmage, Tavious McGahee broke through the left side of the Commerce defense and was gone for a 46-yard touchdown. The conversion failed when the placement snap was dropped.

Commerce, however, answered with an impressive drive that ate up nearly seven minutes of the first quarter. The Tigers went 73 yards in 13 plays, converting a fourth-and-6 with a 7-yard option run at the Red Devils 32. That helped set up Chase Bowen's 20-yard burst up the middle to tie the game. Commerce's point-after missed barely left.

From there the Red Devils broke the game open with three touchdowns in the second quarter that should have been four if not for a goal-line fumble in the waning seconds.

Middlebrooks hit the biggest plays, scoring untouched on a 30-yard misdirection run and a 35-yard screen pass. On the pass, Middlebrooks juked cornerback Deon Orsborne in the left flat and then cut back all the way across the field.

The third score was set up by Bo Reed's 13-yard pass to Wilkes Goolsby to the goal-line. Josh Sims finished it to make it 25-6 with 1:07 left in the half after the third failed conversion attempt.

Lincoln County used all three timeouts to try to get one more score before the half, taking over at the Commerce 26 with 36 seconds left. The strategy seemed to pay off when Reed hit C.J. Jones on a crossing route on the first play, but Jones got popped by Casey Drinkard just at the goal-line. The Tigers recovered the fumble in the end zone.

Sophomore Franklin Sherman took over for Reed at quarterback and accounted for 45 yards passing and 33 running including a 1-yard touchdown sneak to make it 32-6 just three minutes into the third quarter. Sherman finished with 109 total yards on the night while Reed left with 103.

A Vance Tarver 30-yard field goal capped the scoring on the next series.